Is the customer service in voluntary organisations good enough?

It is vital that charities treat potential volunteers with respect, says Caroline Shead

One girl was rejected from an admin support role because she was nervous about answering the phone. She should have been supported and introduced to this aspect of the role gradually. Photograph: David Oliver/Getty Images

I'm going to share with you an email I received from a potential volunteer a while ago. He had contacted my Volunteer Centre about volunteering, and as a brokerage organisation I had met with him, and then put him in touch with a few places that seemed to suit his skills and interests. I contacted him a few weeks later, as a courtesy, to see how he was getting on. Here is what he said:

"I have contacted a few voluntary organisations in the Harrogate area over the last month or two, but have received no responses from any of them, except one which involved missing phone calls as the organiser was either in meetings or travelling. Beyond that, the person has usually been unavailable and other office members have taken messages and promised to get back to me. I'm currently awaiting a reply from one organisation and will give them about another week. I have given up on xxx as they seem rather disorganised and wouldn't now consider working for them in any case.

Should there be no further response, I think I'll give this up and work for my son-in-law…

I should say that I've never experienced such a consistent lack of response when working with voluntary organisations in other areas. I surmise that the groups are:

1. Seriously under staffed and cannot cope with the demands which are placed upon them.

2. Are required for funding purposes to advertise for volunteers, but don't really want them.

3. Are using informal networks of people they already know (a kind of old boys' network).

4. There are too many groups. It may be better to reduce the number and then combine resources, facilities, finance and personnel.

It's quite a bleak outlook for the Prime Minister's 'big society'. I'm sorry that this might appear somewhat pessimistic and I do appreciate your efforts; so I'll give the final charity I've contacted a chance to reply and if there is none, I'll leave it at that"

While the email is certainly not typical, it's a story that I am increasingly hearing from people who want to volunteer. They are taking time to get in touch with organisations, and hearing nothing in return. Don't get me wrong, I work with a very large number of fantastic organisations, and I fully appreciate how busy volunteer managers can be. I too work part-time, and unlike some volunteer centres we are funded and open for only 24 hours a week. I do understand the pressures we are all under – funding cuts, limited resources, growing demand for our services from both service users and those who want to volunteer.

But I can't abide poor customer service and I question why some in the voluntary and community sector think that it doesn't matter. I do think point 1 raised above is true – we are seriously understaffed and some organisations can't cope with the demands, but it saddens me to think that 2 and 3 could possibly be true in any cases. As for his point 4, is there some truth in what he is saying?

In the private sector, your reputation is incredibly important, and in today's increasingly competitive market delivering poor customer service simply isn't acceptable. Look at sites like Trip Advisor – what other people think can literally make or break your business, and all of those ratings are based on customers experiences of the service received. So why is it alright for the voluntary sector to think that the same doesn't apply? Are we in a position to choose who volunteers for us?

To a degree, I think this is becoming true with the increase in demand for volunteering roles we are seeing – I know more and more organisations who are "picky" about who they take and who they don't because they are in a position to do so with supply of volunteers outstripping demand. But surely that goes against the idea that volunteering is inclusive, and that it is an incredibly valuable way to help some people who are disadvantaged take the first steps? It actually makes me sad, angry even, that those organisations will no longer give people a chance.

One girl I know recently was rejected from an admin support role because she was nervous about answering the phone. Instead of taking the time to support her and to introduce her to this aspect of the role gradually, the organisation turned her down outright. This has done nothing for her confidence, or for recognising the great IT skills she was bringing with her. Their loss is my gain, she's now volunteering for me – no phone answering required, until she wants to.

So voluntary organisations, is it time we became more accountable for delivering poor customer service? We are all fighting cuts to funding, frantically gathering outcomes to prove our worth, but if the job we are doing is not up to scratch in the first place, why should we be allowed to continue? Volunteers are often the life blood of our organisations, and if we treat them so badly then we deserve what we get. Let them vote with their feet and go elsewhere, and hold us accountable by providing the negative feedback so that others can make informed choices too.

It is time we raised our game.

Caroline Shead is volunteer centre manager for Harrogate and Area Council for Voluntary Service.